Quarterly Report: The End of a cycle.

This time next week after the completion of the Mazda 10km in Pretoria, I will have completed a full 12 week training cycle. Looking at what I managed to achieve, it's difficult sometimes to believe that I'm only on my second calendar year of training, and have yet to complete two full years since I laced my shoes against in June 2011. Moreover this is only my third complete training program following the 10 week Wally Hayward Half Marathon and 16 week Soweto Marathon programs last year. I squeezed in some (ill-advised) 6 weeks of Lydiard style anaerobic trainng post Soweto that was the stepping stone to the cycle coming to an end now.

In 2012 I had somewhat broad goals that would allowed me to focus on simply getting into the routine of being a runner, but in 2013 I set some very lofty and specific targets. I got a respiratory tract infection last week and then traveled down to Cape Town to support my wife doing her first Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, so weeks 10 and 11 have to put it mildly not gone according to plan. As such it is unlikely that I will meet my intermediate goal at this stage, to break 36:00 for the 10km (and 17:30 for 5km) which is part of a bigger, very stiff annual goal.

Despite being derailed slightly it is fair to say that I have taken huge steps forward as a runner. Coupled with that, I have learnt some of the virtues that will help me achieve that goal, mostly patience. Just because it's written in black and white (mostly digital actually), it doesn't simply follow that my step-by-step idealised progress will progress well idealistically! I've been brought down to earth once or twice both in racing and training, then unexpectedly made a breakthrough!

While I still have the Mazda race to come, I'm not expecting much out of it, so I think this is a good time to take stock of the first quarter of my year thus far.

Training for the most part went really well, barring s bit of ambition that had to be quelled at times, put it down to youthful exuberance! The focus has been on quality so much so that my coach has set no weekly mileage targets. I had to get in a speed session every week, a strength/hill session and an endurance run. The only session I didn't do with great regularity was the hill session and I felt it cost me at stages. My speed sessions and 15km long runs were nailed on mostly week after week. Speed was the focus. The logic was that through the marathon training I had done a fair amount of endurance and also my staple speed session before was tempo runs, but I had never really done any top end stuff. And certainly when I pulled a 64s 400m out of the bag once (before blowing up as the session progressed), and consistently ran 69s 400s to close off a set of 8x400m repeats, the speed had arrived.

How did it it translate into racing. Well I headed into the year having done 37:46 for 10km (official time was 37:34 but I'm sure the time keepers were generous), and from the McCarthy Toyota 10km race, it's been a case of whittling it down. Six 10km races thus far in 2013 have seen 5 PBs, taking my time down in sequence as follows: 37:27 (McCarthy), 37:01 (Tuks Bestmed), 36:50 (Deloitte Pretoria), 36:38 (Om Die Dam) and 36:13 (Bonitas 10km Challenge), so roughly 90s in 10 weeks. The Bonitas 10km Challenge was coastal but I can safely I have yet to feel this added benefit of low altitude  However it was the Saturday after I had got the respiratory tract infection, then co-driven 18 hours to Cape Town from Johannesburg on the Thursday, and then sampled a bit too much craft beer and wine on the Friday. All in all a job well done.

I didn't much of a go on the 5km front. I did two 5km fun runs and both were unfortunately well short of the 5km distance. I did Johnson Crane at the end of January and was actually on track to run under 17:30 having got to 3km at 10:35 and after consolidating to 4km was speeding up nicely to finish but the course was around 400m short. At the Sunrise Baby Monster, I was surprised to see I had run 17:23 on a hellish 5km course but while not as short as Johnson Crane, it was about 250m off. My only other 5km time was an 18:22 at the Ebotse Parkrun, a lovely course that I feel I can run at least 17:45 on, with 60% of the route on grass.

While in the Cape, I finally got in a 8km run and have a PB at this awkward far but not quite 10km distance. I entered the Two Oceans 8km Fun Run on 29th March and even though I still wasn't quite 100% managed a surprisingly quick 29:01, good enough for 7th place. Had I not had to ask for directions entering the UCT Rugby Fields and then mistaking the first banner as the finish line, a good sub 29 was on the cards! Since getting sick and then not running as much, my knee has been niggly and I even had to cut an attempted tempo run short on the tuesday. So with that in mind, I won't even berate myself for those two lapses in concentration that cost me a 28:5x for the distance.

So where to now? In some ways these last two weeks have left me a little bit deflated in that even though I ran two great times for 10km and 8km, I haven't been training or racing for that matter at close to peak performance. After Mazda, I have entered the Slow Mag Half Marathon, the anniversary of my first half so I just had to do it! I have done some 15km and one 18km run, and I'll probably squeeze in at least 15km this coming weekend. I'm not going to put pressure on myself for a time there but I would love to break my PB, 1:25:28. I think had these last two weeks gone as planned, I would have aimed to flirt with that 1:20 mark!

Thereafter, I'm going to go for one last push at the 10km. There is a lovely 10km race in Pretoria, the Jakaranda Centre 10km that I did last year and I remember it as a flat fast route though I did it as an easy recovery run. This year it's penciled in for 11th May, so after Slow Mag, I have 4 weeks to the race and will give it one final big push, with only the Colgate 15km on 5th May which I will use as a long speed endurance run. The Jakaranda will be the one where I gun for a 35:xx time.

Then I will probably do the RAC Sweat Shop/Asics 10km the following weekend and take the remainder of   May off, 2 weeks, before launching into some base training once we return from Durban where my wife will have completed her first Comrades!

Race Reports: Kosmos 3-in-1 and Om Die Dam, weekends of contrasting fortunes

These past two weekends have taught the value of respecting a course. The theme of the story is contrasting fortunes. I ran two races, the Kosmos 3-in-1 10km  (planned) and the Om Die Dam 10km (unplanned). One race was at 17:00, the other at 6:30. One race had an elevation of 100m, the other 52m. One race was hot and the other was run in perfect distance running conditions. The combination of those conditions that produced the better result is somewhat obvious but perhaps brings to mind how rigid we runners are sometimes both in training and particularly racing. We have to hit the splits in training, be it interval training, hill repeats tempos, or that long run at 30s/km slower than anticipated marathon day. On race day we have our strategies imprinted in our memories, and now our watches can beep when we go too fast and when we go to slow, or we have pace bands that gives up times of arrival at various splits. It can be very exhausting sometimes! I find myself doing some pretty nifty number crunching while turning my legs on race day.

Late last week, Runners World (US) posted a very interesting piece on how the Kenyans approach their training. These are by far the dominant athletes in the distance running world and by all accounts training and racing, while very serious is done in a less calculated manner that one would think. The article even suggested that finishing a work out (or a race for that matter) in a prescribed intensity is not always the attempted result. These runners push themselves to the brink. And it makes sense, within reason of course. If one is to push outside their boundaries, surely it stands to reason that the carefully constructed plan should be put aside occasionally? And sometimes, as I learned, one needs to hold by slightly and accept sometimes that some days aren't meant from ground breaking performances.

Kosmos 3-in-1

To go back to the list of conditions I put up earlier, this race was the 17:00, 52m elevation gain and HOT. Typically armed with that knowledge this was a race where I would have targeted a very strong performance but this was a day when the custodians of racing when on hand to dish out some valuable lessons. From the start it was probably not going to be a day for fast racing.

The Kosmos 3-in-1 event is unique in that it gives athletes the opportunity to really extend themselves in their quest to test out their abilities to endure. On the menu is a marathon for breakfast, served at 6:00. For lunch is a half portion and for a light dinner is a brisk 10km. All in all runners would take on the entire feast complete 73.3km. And for the many the breaks in between make the whole ordeal endeavour even more challenge; rhythm is something all runners value.

While 2013 is about specialisation for me, my wife is training for her first Comrades Ultramarathon this year, and the Kosmos 3-in-1 would a valuable indicator of her staying power. Thus it meant when she woke up at 3:00 to get ready for the marathon, awake I did too. Typically waking up at 3:00 before a race is no big deal for me but with 14 hours until the start of my race it was to be a long day, spent waiting and trying to keep fresh and ready.

That is not to suggest I was bored or troubled. Outside of that 30 odd minutes I was running, Kosmos was a reminder of all that I love about running. The were a number of fellow Kudus club members at the event, and spending time with club members and cheering them on was quite something. Supporting my wife as she took this big challenge was the most important part of the event, completing all three events with plenty to spare. As such I would not change any part of the day.

Except the weather!

The marathon had some amazing weather. Overcast for the most part, with a bit of drizzle early on. However about halfway through the marathon the sun peaked through the clouds and it got hot very quickly. By the time the half marathon got underway it was well over 30°C. Come the 10km things had not improved much from that point possibly down to around 28°C. I vaguely the announcer at the start saying something in that region, though with my poor Afrikaans skills I could be wrong.

I had hoped to run in the region of 36:30 having heard how flat the course could be. Indeed I started of briskly hitting the first kilometre board in 3:35 or so. But that was as good as it got. Thereafter fatigue hit my legs immediately and by the 3rd kilometre I felt like I was fighting to maintain pace despite the relative lack of steep climbing. There was really one steep climb, after 7km going through the 8km mark and just before 9km. I was surprised in the moment how much I was struggling. I would glance at the Garmin periodically and would never see the pace much faster than 3:45/km no matter how much I pushed.

I was so relieved to get to the end. The race finishes on the Lake Umuzi waterfront and it's a twisty ending. I had some experience of it already, having entered in and continued a fine club tradition of winning the 2km fun run! This time I crossed the line, a bit disappointed to have run 38:32. This time was slower than the Old Year's race in December, and was my slowest 10km since Tom Jenkins where I had run 40:52, and was over a minute slower than McCarthy Toyota despite a far nicer route. On the other hand I finised 12th in the race and was in the top 10 till almost 8km when I got passed by two runners.


As the week progressed and speaking to various people, I accepted to take the rough with the good. I had a race plan and stuck rigidly to it. It didn't cost me anything. That was my 6th consecutive sub 39 10km, crazy when I think I broke 45 minutes for 10km for the first time less than 12 months ago!

Om Die Dam

So the following week heading down to Haartbeespoort to run Om Die Dam, my confidence was a bit low. At least training had gone well, a session of 400m sprints aiming for 72s and doing, 72, 73, 71, 71, 69, then a tempo run with 5km aiming for 3:48/km and returning splits of 3:47, 3:49, 3:49, 3:46, 3:46. Those session were sandwiched by an easy run where I comfortably ran at ~4:35 pace. Still there was this nagging feeling from the weekend before that this period of improvement had run it's course. Since the two easy weeks that I had after Soweto, I have been at it for 17 weeks, with two further easy weeks over New Years to recharge. For a relative novice it's been a challenging and prolonged period and pretty soon it would be time to ease off and do something different. Had that time arrived already.

Once again we were at the Dam because my wife was doing the 50km event. It turned out to be one umarathon/ulltra too many for her but she got confirmation of her staying power, finishing a difficult sounding race, which bodes well for the Big C in June!

Conditions at 6:30 were just right for racing! Cool, overcast and no wind to speak off. The start was congested and I almost got into trouble with some big guys doing the half for being eager in my attempts to get round them but I got out of there safely and got into a nice rhythm. I got to the first kilometre in 3:32 on my watch but unlike Kosmos that biting feeling in my legs didn't come. We ran down to about 2km, the poor 50km ultra runners would climb up this furious hill to finish their race! As sadistic as finishes come. Our route flattened out to 4km and I was feeling as good as I have in any race. The kilometre marks, despite being similar with watch for the first 2km deviated a lot as I apparently put in some 4:00/km+ splits despite not feeling like I was slowing down.

At 4km I did feel my pace slow a bit. The pull didn't seem that hectic to me until I pulled out the route profile after the race, 75m elevation gain over ~3km.

Om Die Dam

My splits on the Garmin for that stretch, were 3:42, 3:51 and 4:03. The boards disappeared after 5km so I have no recollection of where I was in relation to official markings. I had at this stage given up on a PB but hoped to run well inside 38 and after the last water point, with 3km to go I started to pick up my pace.

Much of this period is a blur I vaguely remember seeing a 2km mark on the road (Om Die Dam distance markers show how much is left) and my time just under 30:00. I really went for it. There was one more climb as we went past the start again and climbed briefly before heading into the finish, the grass track at Haartbeespoort High School where we ran almost a full lap, my time was in the 35s at this stage and I ran as hard as I could and crossed the line in 36:38 on my watch, a new PB!

Numericaly speaking this was one of the tougher of the routes that I have run and a good PB shows that perhaps there is still a bit more to come. That during the run I didn't feel like it was challenging is a good sign too.

There's a few more races to come. It's Two Oceans in less than 2 weeks and while in Cape Town I will try to get a race in, and then the last planned 10km is the Mazda 10km race on 6 April. That race is one when I'm going to throw caution to the wind (within reason) and just try and thrash my legs as much as can.

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A Measure Of Progress (and some race reports)

Every sport out there has some kind of measure of improvement that one can strive for. For runners it's as simple as running further or faster or further faster. That's part of the thrill of entering races, even for the 99% of us who are not at the sharp end of the field competing for podiums and prize money. We still compete but with our past selves. While runners tend to be non-committal when asked about times for races, often getting a response like, "oh that last 10km, it was about 40!", that runner is probably completing the time in their head, "40 minutes and 34 seconds!". In the last 18 months I have run 29 races and more than my PBs, I can remember every time I ran to the second!

The thing about racing though is that the components that make up your run and result in that finishing time are many and varied. The course and the altitude are fixed variables, then the weather is critical and unpredictable, then dealing with other people *cough* walkers pushing right to the front *cough* and you the runner, something as silly as substituting the usual morning snack can wreak havoc. With that in mind, comparing races simply by time alone can be deceiving. As I read in this Men's Health article interviewing the likes of Hendrick Ramaala, a personal best is not always a best performance which in turn is not always a maximum performance. I remember last year while training for Soweto Marathon, running a 39:39 PB for the Zwartkop 10km race at the end of July. It was not ideal. I was late for the starrt (which thankfully was delayed to accommodate those stuck in traffic), then I was conservative at the beginning, I didn't have a pocket so I ran with car keys in hand and at 8km  I dropped them and had to backtrack, and it took a huge effort from there to recover and break 40 min for the first time. Then a few weeks later I ran 42:05 at the Castle Walk 10km. The latter was a long way off my personal best but it was by far the better performance. The course was incredibly hilly and it was so cold I had tights, gloves and a beanie on.

So while I have improved  my running a heck of a lot, without being able to control for some variables at least, the geek in me has been looking for a solid quantitative measure of progress. 

And on 23 February I got it. 

At the start of 2012 I had been pretty down about running, up to the end of February I had run once, contemplated giving up on it completely but decided to lace up my shoes one last time and headed out to my Run/Walk for Life branch in Benoni one weekend. The following weekend I was out in Pretoria and my wife was doing the Deloitte Pretoria half marathon so I went along and entered the 10km. To my surprise I ran 45:44 which was quite a big PB at that time. Now a year later I was lined up at the start of the same race, in a very different space and in very different condition. I wasn't even supposed to be doing the race but my father was entered for the 10km and was booked off from running with bronchitis so I took on his entry.

Recapping a close call

The previous weekend I had done the Bestmed Tuks Race having heard it's a fast course. I went there under the guise of doing it as a training run, 2km warm up, 6km at tempo pace, 2km cool down. But once we got underway I was sucked into the event as I spotted some big names towing the start. Indeed at the 1km mark two very familiar looking Nedbank elite females came striding past, it was the Kalmer sisters!

The Bestmed Tuks race was a deceptive little tease, It was predominantly down for about 3km and then what followed was almost 5km of predominantly gradual but still brisk uphill running. I had gone through 3km in 10:40 but it was difficult to maintain that pace. I went through 5km in 18:10 and while I was keeping my pace better than 4:00 min/km I was a lot closer to it that 3:30 min/km. By 8km it was 29:30 or so and at 9km my time was 33:20. My legs were beat and I was overtaken by a few guys finishing strong. When we turned on to the track at LC De Villiers I tried to sprint for the line as it dawned on my that while a PB was a certainty I could slip under 37:00 but alas it was not to be. The sprint did not materialize and I finished in 37:01, still a 26s improvement on my time from McCarthy two weekends before.

Measuring Progress

So standing at the start of the Deloitte Pretoria 10km, I was a bit fatigued to be honest and during my warm up my legs still had that dead feeling from the end of the Bestmed Tuks race. Training had not gone too well either. I had done a session of 6x600s on the Tuesday and though it was hot I never felt in control and my form deteriorated rapidly. On Thursday I had done a time trial and while it was my second best time on the course again from about 3km I faded and was almost down to about HM pace at the end. Again the weather was a contributor though could not explain everything. I was working too hard for my own good.

Once the gun went and the mad stampede at this huge race, with 3500 finishers, has subsided the rhythm and groove returned. The 10km shares the first 3km with the marathon and half marathon so from point to point to that mark is uphill running. Indeed while I have been hitting 3km in my last few 10km races well under 11:00, here I got to the mark in 11:20 but I knew the course got faster, with the occasional pull, as the race progressed. I got to the 5km mark in 18:35 so my splits were under 3:40 min/km which is were I had to be racing at.

The next two splits were fast as well, in the mid 3:30s and I got to 7 k  in about 25:50. From there it was a war of attrition and a bit of a mental ding dong, with two short but surprising challenging climbs. It was probably more that it was so late in the race but I did start to struggle a bit and had to work really hard. By 8km I was uncomfortably close to the 30:00 mark, the doubt was creeping in and the next split was even slower as I hit 9km in around 33:35 give or take a second or two.

I could feel that it would be Tuks all over again but I also knew there was a nice downhill section coming up and I was really starting to get the stride rate up again. As we got to the entrance of Phobians the venue, with clock at 35:50 odd and maybe 250-300m to go I put in the sort of kick that I didn't know I possessed. Going round the grass my pace picked up and I crossed the line under 37, my offical time 36:50!!!

The Deloitte Pretoria 10km Course Profile

I was ecstatic. While there wer only 11 seconds in it, I think I ran a lot better here than I did at Tuks, or McCarthy for that matter. I've been going out way to fast, close to 35:00 10km pace, and while that's where I want to be at the end of the year I'm not even close right now and fading at the end of races tells me that. Deloitte was tougher than Tuks and about on a par with McCarthy so overall it was definitely a better performance.

And on the subject of progress. A year on year improvement of 8:54 is the figure and one that really puts into perspective just how far I have come in the last year. It's also an inspiration to keep working hard and keeping knocking down the times. Tough it's getting more and more difficult to find places to improve, I raced three times over 10km in February setting a PB each time, bringing the time down from 37:34 to 37:27, 37:01 and finally 36:50.

This coming weekend I head down to Secunda for the Kosmos 3-in-1 event. My wife is doing the full 73.3km but I'll be racing at 17:00 for the 10km just hoping for more of the same.

There's a first time for everything

Just briefly, this weekend was the Sunrise Monster in Pretoria. I ended up registering for the Baby Monster, the 5km fun run and even though it's a baby it was still a monster. It was just short of 5km, as I went round the course in 17:23 though after passing the 4km mark in 15:00, I know it's unlikely I put in a 2:23 final kilometre despite being in great shape and striding with purpose to the finish.

The great part of the race is that I won!!! It was a fun so the speedsters were torturing themselves on the Mini Monster but I'll take it. I've finished second in two fun runs, the Mazda 5km and the Johnson Crane Fun Run which was also just shy of 5km so it was great to have the exprience of crossing the line with the entire field behind me. The Garmin measure 4.75km  and with ~1% error I was on track for around 18:10, only 21s or so adrift of my 5km PB, which would have been great on these hills. Though it must be noted we didn't even make it as far as the infamous Loveday Street!

I'm actually getting a bit miffed with these short races now as I am in the shape to run faster than 17:49 and genuinely believe I can run 17:15 for 5km. At Johnson in January, which measured at ~4.6km I might have run 17:25 on a full course. I had gone through 4km in 14:05. I guess and understand that if it's a fun run there really is no obligation to measure out exactly 5km as there are no official results. With that in mind though perhaps it should just be labeled as a fun run and no distance, just a guarantee it will be shorter than the 10k event. Parkruns aside, the Take 5 relay and the Asics 5km at the end of the year are the only 5km events I know of that are guaranteed to be the exact distance so I might have to wait for one of  those to get an official shot at the PB

Race Report: McCarthy Toyota 10km

A common theme in my running from 2012 was personal best after personal best. I raced 21 times, and excluding first time attempts at 10.5km, 15km, 21km and the marathon, I recorded 11 personal bests in 17 races. According to my father, it was an exercise in inevitability. The six months to the end of 2011 has seen me complete just 345km an average of less than 60km a month and complete just two 10km races and two shorter fun runs. Essentially I was starting from a base so low I was essentially still unstimulated. And then there was the two month break  leading to mid February. So when I started training seriously, the improvement curve was to be expected, and a year is not a very long time for a runner so it was no surprise that in December I was still able to knock almost 50s off a PB I had recorded 3 weeks earlier, even on a technically tougher race. My body was simply responding to continuously increasing stimuli. Inevitable.

The challenge however is how to keep on improving and to curtail the dreaded plateau. It's coming, boy do I know it. I sometimes feel it in training, in my faster workouts where once I could feel improvements week on week which made training at a consistent pace/effort tricky. An improvement cycle of two to four weeks will be four to eight weeks and so on and so on. My father is still certain that after only 18 months of serious training, I have room to maneuver and a lot to tweak in training. From intensity, to volume, to frequency, and adding more structure through periodization, there is a lot to still work. Indeed when I read through programs and training books I do notice how embryonic my training level is in comparison to programs for the sort of times I am able to run. I used to consider my inability to train at high volume, both at easy/long pace and in terms of repetition/interval volume, a disadvantage, but in many ways it might afford me greater flexibility once the plateau starts to set in.

Training has been going well this far in 2013. The primary focus has been on improving top end speed through short fast intervals, so 200s and 400s, and building strength through a mix of short and long hills, all the while maintaining 10km endurance by running easy over distance-long runs. I saw in the last two weeks doing 5km events that the leg speed is there. At 5km level I can go pretty hard without worrying too much about fatigue, and particularly at Johnson Crane where I believe I was on track for at least 17:30, this was obvious.

I was interested in how this had translated to my primary distance the 10km. The plan is over the course of 12 weeks to race a hard effort 10km roughly every four weeks. So that's a minimum of three races leading up to the first weekend of April. The first of these was the McCarthy Toyota 10km in Pretoria on 2nd February. It's a pretty big races and in my head I have always had this impression that it's a fast race hence why I decided to race it with plenty of other races on offer around this time.

Thankfully I was pre-entered this time, something I want to make a habit (but was too late for a t-shirt), and I was able to get to the venue with my brother, also running the 10km with no stress. Warming up has been a critical component of my pre-race preparation and I like to get a good 20 minutes of a mix of easy running and race pace surges in before the start of my race. I usually stop 10 minutes before the start of the race so I need a good half hour before race start to be ready! With the huge numbers expected I actually cut my routine a bit short. The half marathon runners set off 15 minutes before the 10km and I was warming up behind the start, so once the gun I shuffled in behind them to make sure that I had a prime spot close to the front. I had an experience last year where I got boxed in at the start of a race and found myself going at 5min/km for almost 2km when I was aiming for 3:45-3:50 pace, and I had to basically write the race off and use it as a training run.

Once the gun went, the pace was as expected furious up front! I saw a lead female runner who has finished just ahead or just behind me in recent races and tried to keep her in my sights but even that pace was frightening. As we passed the first KM marker my time was just on 3:30. To be honest I had eased off a bit after that first 2 minutes or so and sure enough 2km came along in a more sedate 7:35 and I was more at ease. At this point the course was heading downhill and it was actually a bit disconcerting. I had checked the course out before and it was basically a mirror image, down and up, but I expected a gentle decline. The kilometres sped by thick and fast, at ~3:35/km pace, 3km came by in 10:35, 4km in 14:05 and 5km in 17:45 which is the fastest I have ever run a 5km! And in reality with the downward slope this wasn't hard work yet.

By 5km the course had flattened out and we started to make away back up towards the finish. The term slow poison is reserved for climbs like what followed. Another than two short sections at around 7km and just after 8km it was never overwhelming but just relentless.

McCarthy Toyota 10km Profile

My memory of the splits from 5km is a bit shady but my pace did slow a bit. I remember 6km coming in about 21:35 and 8km in around, 29:45, 9km was at 33:45 and at this stage I was worried the chance of a PB had gone. I put my foot down and just gave it my all. Getting to the finish there was a horde of 5km fun runners coming past and I had to venture off the road and on to grass to avoid them , and despite my best effort I almost missed the entry Rietondale Park. I was almost home and dry and I as I turned and saw the finish banner the official clock was under 37:20 with about 50m to go.

The finish line in sight: I showed my father this picture and his response was "you finally look like an athlete!"

I stopped my clock at 37:25 and my official time was 37:27, a small PB but I think quite a good sign considering the previous time was set on a faster course, despite the 1km climb that was a bit steeper than anything here. At the Great Run race other than an errant 4:30 split I was consistently at or below my overall average pace for all but the 5th and 8th kilometre splits, and the massive drop after the climb allowed me to post a ~3:20/km split as well!

The Great Run course profile where I had run my previous 10km PB

So here's what the Garmin recorded pace wise, remembering these devices almost always measure long, also with runners not following the ideal racing line.

A solid collection of splits!

Overall I'm really happy with how the race went. I hadn't race a 10km since the end of December and I was feeling nervous and a bit rusty. It's often difficult to gauge from training how a race will go, but my decent outing at the truncated Johnson Crane 5km was a sign that I was heading in the right direction. As I've learned one cannot simply extrapolate a performance from in particular a shorter distance to a longer one. You've got to get into the mix. A PB and 32nd out of 3122 finishers is more than I was expecting.

I still a have bit of racing to come. Key races in the future are the 10km at the Kosmos 3 in 1 event  at Lake Umuzi on 9th March and the Mazda 10km on 6th April. The former is an afternoon race and that area even in March can be notoriously hot so I'm hoping the conditions are a bit more favourable. The latter will be my last 10km for a good while and I hope it's as flat and fast as the 2012 race was. I did the 5km there last year, breaking 20 min for the first time. Kosmos was a massive 5 weeks from the McCarthy race so in the interim I have also entered the Bestmed Tuks 10km this coming Saturday which I hope to do as a controlled pace effort. No fireworks but I want to a strong even paced race at a hard effort. Runners' Guide says,"The 10 kilometre event is one of the few single-lap routes and is very flat and fast.". Let's hope that's exactly how it pans out!

Back to 5: A Rare Parkrun and Johnson Crane Fun Run

As my 2013 program is starting to shift through the gears, I've been very eager to test myself and see just what improvements if any I have gained in the last 3 weeks or so of full on training. My goal for the next three months is simply to run faster at 10km than I ever have. My overall goal for the year as I said before is a sub 35:00 10km. To continue to train at high intensity for the duration of the year until the goal is achieved would be sheer folly, so my program now involves racing once a month until the first weekend of April and training consistently for the preceding weeks, sharpening the necessary tools I require. So that means speedwork in the form of fast repetitions, hill training in the form of long hills and short sprints to improve my stamina, form and strength and maintenance of endurance by continue to run above distance once a week. The mission here is specificity, a 30km long run will get me nothing here so my session have been selected with the goal race in mind. In particular the repetitions not only improve my form and leg speed etc, my consistently running faster than race pace, when I line up on the start line, that pace should feel considerably easier and the hills and longish run will take of helping me last the distance.

Great in theory, but before my first 10km  race I have been eager to just feel my way around a race to see how I was getting along. Two weekends ago I manged to attend the closest parkrun to me at Ebotse. I did the course once before sometime in the middle of Soweto training as a breather from the long stuff and put in a respectable 19:57. This time, with the shackles of high volume training thrown off I was able to put in a good performance running my second fastest 5km, finishing in 18:22. This was interesting to me because while my PB is 17:49 for the distance I have frankly never looked like coming close to it and I was starting to believe that it was a once off performance. But of course to nail my goal for the year I would have to not only match that time but probably start heading into the low 17s and high 16s. The Ebotse course is approximately 3km on grass and as I have learnt from doing my speed sessions on a cricket oval, grass is kind on the joint but is was more taxing than an all weather track or the road. So I had good reason to believe that on a similarly flat course on the road I could run a good time for 5km.

The opportunity came around this past weekend at the Johnson Crane race, a big affair with an estimated 6000 runners doing the various events from a 1km kiddies to the marathon. With my wife doing the half marathon I would be at the venue, Old Benonians, so I entered the 5km. The marathon and half marathon went off first and 30 minutes later, the 10.5km, quarter marathon and 5km would be off. I was to see a legend of South African running Frith van de Merwe also toeing the start, she was ultimately the first veteran female in the 10.5km.

As the gun went off I was honestly unsure how to run the race. A 10km I typically try and restrain myself, but with only 5000 metres, I didn't apply the brakes much. The start was frenetic and I was sucked into a pace that I knew I would be difficult to sustain, so I did sit back a little and try and pick off people in front of me. In a blur the 1km board came past and I checked my watch, 3:25, yikes. By this stage I had calmed down and was in a nice rhythm, long but quick strides (at least that's how I imagined a spectator would describe it). The 2km board came round and it was 6:50 odd, the Garmin would show 6:57, and it was spot on with the boards distance wise. The 10.5km runners would split with us at the 3km point which came just after a water point. As I do in short races I skipped it  and checked my time, 10:34 or something like.

Suddenly the crowd thinned out to the point where I could see no one in front of me. I looked back and just the water point disappearing in front. Eventually after about a minute or so, I saw the lead car up ahead and a runner clad in Nedbank runners just behind. I just focused in keeping him in my sights and I was surprised that I felt strong. There were no more distance marking so I just kept on going, and as Old Bens came into view just pushed harder. 

I stopped the clock and was a bit alarmed to see it at 16:09 and then the realization that route was a fair bit short. The Garmin had measured 4.62km. It was spot on up to 2km at least and certainly not far off at the 3km mark so that was close to the correct distance. Working back 16:09 is 3:30/km pace and I was feeling really strong so anywhere from 17:25-17:30 was possible on the day.

At the end of the day, I think I got exactly what I wanted out of the exericise, other than a new 5km PB! I raced hard and got a meaningful guage of how my training is going. My PB for 10km at the moment stands at 37:34 which predicts a 5km time of around 18:05. So to have finished close to 5km in race conditions at 3:30/km it means my speed has improved. 

Next weekend is the first of three goal 10km races, the McCarthy Toyota race at Rietondale Park. The Old Years race that I did last year in scorching heat started from the same venue. I feel a lot better now having put myself to the test at shorter race distances that I can have a good race which will hopefully end in a new 10km PB. Certainly whatever happens I feel like the building blocks are being put into place and there's a lot of improvements to come as the season progresses.

What's in store for 2013: Back to Basics

Five weeks after the Soweto Marathon, I had an epiphany. Immediately after the marathon, after moping, acceptance then combing through every detail of the race I decided that I had a score to settle. I've been told by some of my friends that I am borderline obsessive with my approach to training, and while I can become a slave to the details, I have been assured by folks who know more about this sort of thing that my training was not at fault. And in reality neither was it my race strategy. I was simply carrying a huge debt from my inexperience, an aerobic deficit, a lack of physical strength and mental toughness, all of which gets honed with time and application. Talking to other runners, there is often a period of very difficult marathon running, followed by dramatic improvements in marathon times as one finds their level.

So with that in mind, I spent my week off running by going through my training, brushing up on my theory and constructing a plan to work through my deficit. More mileage, a midweek long run, long tempo runs and incorporating more marathon pace efforts with the weekend long run and so on. I also committed to an autumn marathon.

In the meanwhile, I went back to (relatively) low mileage and high intensity training, just sharpening up, and a diet of 10km races, three of them in the space of 6 weeks to close the year off. The first of these, the Kollonade Retail Park race was entered on a bit of a whim. I expected a decent time on the flattest 10km race I had run all year but was still pleasantly surprised to run a 42s PB. This was followed by three weeks of consistent training, intervals, a tempo run and a relatively hard 15km 'long' run. The return from this diet was almost immediate as I felt week on week my legs turning faster and faster and my pace stamina rocketing.

And then it happened. Just three weeks later another 48s off my PB on a tougher route at the Great Run Race. It was somewhere along the drive home from that I had my epiphany. I have spent the whole year focused on marathon running, and of course my final ambition is to run Comrades and to get there I have to run further and further. The contrast in both approach and the results in the past three weeks and the 16 weeks to a tough (but still rewarding) marathon could not be more stark. August and September were dark months for me and in hindsight I did not enjoy running as much as I thought I did. And at the moment I thought back to my new program and the idea of more 90km weeks and 35km long runs just didn't fill me with joy. And all for one moment, one shot at the main prize.

My father has tried without luck to convince to forget about marathons for a while, and the word that always pops up is, base, base, base. In other words I just haven't got it and from that respect I'm guaranteed to struggle more that I should. And after the Great Run race I saw the light. I always believed that because results come quickly with the shorter distances that I don't really have to pay too much attention to it and focus on getting better at the endurance stuff. But in reality I should focus on the shorter distances and use the winter break to build that base that I am so obviously lacking.

And that sets the scene for what I want to do with my running in 2013:

• Run a sub 35:00 10km
• Run a sub 1:20:00 Half Marathon

Those are big goals but I think from PBs of 37:34 and 1:25:28, those times are achievable. I've improved a heck of a lot in 2012 but even though this will be ~20% of my total gain it might prove to be a lot more challenging since I'm probably closer to some sort of plateau than I was  in 2012. On the other hand, I have never dedicated a significant portion of training to 10km specific workouts, preferring threshold running to the really fast stuff. In essence I feel my training still hasn't been very specific; 2012 was all about getting a feel for consistency, volume and introducing speed training. 2013 will be about specificity and quality, as well as adding non-running workouts and this will hopefully keep the improvement curve going upwards.

My focus in the fast half of the year before the winter off-season will be on 10km. I've picked three races, one each in February, March and April  but I don't necessarily expect to achieve the sub 35:00 then and  won't be disappointed if I don't. After a solid winter of base building (preceded by a month of cross country for something a little bit different) I plan to sink my teeth into a dedicated 10 week half marathon plan ending in early November. That still leaves me with almost two months to wrap up my 10km ambitions. I think it's set up well. The high intensity training and speed improvements will come in handy later in the year and couple with base training will have a knock on effect to both the half marathon goal and any 10km races I do in the second half

This cycle will hopefully be repeated through to the first half of 2015, which will give me four years of solid running and three winters of dedicated base training. 

Then I might think about tackling a spring marathon.

2012 in Review: The Year I Ran!

I can sum up 2012 simply with the following two sentences:

On 25 February I ran a personal best 45:44 for 10 km at the Deloitte Pretoria Race.

On 8 December I ran a personal best 37:34 for 10 km at the Great Run Challenge Series Race

An improvement of over eight minutes in 9 ½ months that I just never saw coming. Of course quite a bit happened in between, lots of training, joy, struggles, and heck even a marathon, but the story needs to go back at least 6 months.

              

Thanks to my borderline OCD when it comes to logging workouts and the memory bank that is Facebook Timeline, the sheer haphazardness of my 2011 became apparent. I thought I had put in a decent shift at least in the second half of the year when I made the commitment to run after supporting at Comrades, but just 345 km and swathes of empty weeks told their own story. Two 10 km races and PB of 48:00 was something to work off, but 2012 became a make or break year. Even in my school years of forced participation running was always a hit or miss affair and my adherence to training was always mediocre.

At the start of 2012, the buzzword was surely consistency. A consequence of consistency would be that I would run a lot more, but to get there I would need realistic but challenging goals to guide me. When I set my goals for 2012, I had already embarked on the first week of a half marathon training program so that was my starting point. My PB of 48:00 for 10 km predicted a half marathon time a shade slower than 1:45 but to push myself I set the target to 1:40. My goals for the year were set as follows

• ·         Half Marathon: sub 1:40
• ·         10km: sub 45:00
• ·         Finish a marathon

These goals, particularly the final one would really test my limits. Despite running sub 50:00 for the 10 km I had yet to finish the distance without resorting to a run/walk strategy for the second half of a race. Added to that was the fact that I had never run further than 10 km in a race or in training.

The quest got off to a spectacular start! I had a 10 km ‘fitness barometer’ race scheduled at the end of the first week of my 10 week half marathon program. Off-training over the festive period had turned into a long hiatus and by mid-February I had put in a solitary awful 7 km. So the race, the aforementioned Deloitte Pretoria Race, would give me an idea of how ambitious/crazy I was being. Despite once again having to employ a run/walk strategy I was surprised to run that big PB that set the ball rolling.

The half marathon training program introduced me to elements of a complete program that I may have neglected in the past. It incorporated a lot of easy running, something I was rubbish at, interval training, fartleks, still my favourite the tempo run and the introduction of long runs. My first ‘long’ run was 10km at 5:45 pace and it was an absolute blast. Even time wise, I had never run that long before and it was a confidence booster. The long run was extended week on week. While the tempo run was me in my element, there’s something about running comfortably hard, the track sessions were destroying me. I ended up doing most of my speed as fartleks on the road instead.

Throughout the course of the program I felt myself getting stronger though not necessarily faster. In March I ran another 10 km on a hilly course and ran outside my PB but a respectable 46:20. But I had a break through moment in early April when I did a 10 km tempo/time trial. I ran through the whole way and matched the 46:20 I had run, and for the first time didn’t feel shattered at the end. I spent the following week in Cape Town and had a second moment, my 16 km long run, done along the beach front in Muizenberg and it was the first time that I really felt like I had made progress and would get through a half marathon. I never once felt tired, didn’t need to stop for water and even my gel. I saw the most gorgeous sunrise and had waves crashing beneath for much of the run. I returned to Benoni, with the first inkling that I could and would succeed with the half marathon.

I had picked the Wally Hayward race to end my 10 week program on but my debut half marathon actually came earlier. Staying in Benoni, the Slow Mag marathon took place two weeks earlier and my rubber arm was gently twisted and I decided to do the race as a long run. I had planned to run 19km that day anyway so an extra 2 km did not seem like a big deal. The first  5 km was innocently done at marginally faster than training pace ~5:15/km but by 10km my average pace was under 5:00/km as I got into the spirit of the event and decided to race it anyway. It was the third wow moment of the year. I finished off the race in 1:38:42, well within my 1:40 target and actually ran sub 45:00 for the 10-20 km portion. I had never felt that strong before in a race! Two and half weeks later, I crushed that PB further running 1:35:01 at Wally Hayward. Wally was almost a perfect race, with each 5 km split faster than the preceding one. And the famed sting in the tail did not break me.

Goal #1 achieved.

While still giddy and on the PB train, I entered a 10 km race just 4 days after Wally Hayward, knowing that in both the two half marathons I had run, I had broken the 45 min mark in the 10-20 km portion. The route for the Jackie Mekler race was fast with some hills, and I was still fatigued from the half marathons but I really dug in deep and smashed my 10 km PB and the 45 minute barrier, running 42:38.

Goal #2 achieved.

This left me with 26 weeks to my target marathon. I picked, despite reservations from a number of people, the Soweto Marathon. I won’t rehash all of the details as I posted enough about it; suffice to say it was a tough endeavour. I needed to go through it though. This year was about commitment and pushing myself. Marathons and the training are not for the faint hearted and I learnt going through one particularly tough episode where I almost quit. Oddly at the end of that week, I ran a PB for 10 km, 39:04 at the Wanderers Challenge! While PBs fell all round, I ran 17:49 for 5 km, I cracked sub 40 10 km and sub 90 for the half twice for both distances, just being able to go out and run for 3 hours was something I never thought I would be able to do. The marathon itself was a chastening experience but I’m glad I gave it a good go and I’m proud of my 3:38:10 finish.

I finished a marathon dammit!

Goal #3 achieved.

That is not where it ends of course and I have already looked forward to 2013 and there are bigger better plans in the pipeline, the subject of another blog post.

But before jumping ahead, there were still 8 weeks left after Soweto Marathon and while I had promised myself some time off, I really couldn’t stay away and managed all of 4 days of no running and within two weeks I was lining up at the start line of a race, the Kolonnade Retail Park 10 km which resulted in a 38:22 PB! Three weeks later that PB would prove to be short lived as I improved that further by running 37:34 at the Great Run Challenge Series II race at Weskoppies. My final race of the year was the Old Year's Race on 29 December where I managed my third fastest 10 km time, 38:24, in incredibly testing conditions, with the temperature at the start being a body melting 32°C despite the 17:00 start. 

What the last 8 weeks of the year revealed to me, and a hint of what’s in store for 2013, was how much I really enjoyed racing short and fast. And while getting to the end of a 42.2 km race is the standout moment of the year for me, I’m really proud of my 10 km running. Throughout the year I improved my time for the distance from 2011 by over 10 minutes or more than 20%!

As I said at the beginning part of running consistently would have the knock on effect of me simply running more. My tally for the year stands at 2079 km, a weekly average of 40 km with a peak of 82 km, a monthly average of 173 km with a peak of 262 km. The marathon aside my longest run was 33km and 3:11 for time on the road. Racing was also a big feature of my year, collecting 21 medals, a fair chunk of them silver medals. 

The 2012 Medal Bounty!

The standout points for the year for me are as follow:

• A 17:49 5km PB
• 1:25:28 PB for the half marathon
• 37:34 PB for 10km, five sub 40 runs and 6 PBs
• Finishing a marathon!

After such an overwhelmingly successful and consistent 2012, here’s to an even better, more focused and even more specific 2013!